LaBelle's 4-decade feud with Ross ends at lunch

August 03, 2005|By Geoff Brown, Tribune staff reporter

Patti LaBelle stayed mad at fellow rhythm and blues diva Diana Ross for a very long time--38 years, to be exact. But sitting with Ross at a "luncheon table for, like, three hours" zapped the hard feelings.

In raucously funny detail, LaBelle discussed the grudge during a meet-and-greet event last week, heralding her latest album, "Classic Moments," at the DuSable Museum of African American History. The affair was hosted by Dedry Jones as part of his occasional series of artist appearances under the aegis of the South Side music store The Music Experience.

You would think Ross had stolen her man, the way LaBelle carried on about her for almost four decades. But LaBelle said it really started because of Cindy Birdsong's 1967 defection from Patti LaBelle & the Bluebelles to Ross' Supremes. The bad blood evaporated recently when Oprah Winfrey invited LaBelle and Ross to a weekend Legends event on the West Coast.

The 61-year-old Grammy Award winner said one thing led to another and, well, here's LaBelle's 100 m.p.h. version of events:

"I was mad at Diana Ross for many, many years. ... One night we went to perform--[and] Cindy Birdsong's [behind] was all up in Detroit! Diana Ross called her to take Florence Ballard's place (Ballard had been fired) without telling me first. ... So of course I was [angry] with Miss Ross.

"After a year I did forgive Cindy ... [but] I never came to grips with saying anything to Diana, because I think I would've beat the hell out of her. So instead of me beating her physically, I beat her verbally. Whenever I got a chance, I would say, `I hate her.'"

The wall between them grew brick by badmouth brick through third parties--and was cemented by a shot at LaBelle's weight by Ross on the "Arsenio Hall Show," LaBelle said.

Then "Oprah Winfrey gave that beautiful Legends, a weekend about two months ago."

And, as seating arrangements would have it, Ross was there, at the same luncheon table as Mary J. Blige, Mariah Carey, Chaka Khan--and LaBelle.

"So Diana would leap up every now and then and say something to me, and I said, OK, I can't be rude ... I have to respond.

"And so I had seen [Ross'] kids that day, and her kids were loving the fool out of Patti LaBelle. Honest to God. ... Like [Ross' daughter] Tracee [Ellis Ross] wanted me to be her mother on [her TV sitcom] `Girlfriends.' ... So I was saying that's such a pleasure, such an honor for her to want Patti LaBelle in her life. Maybe she doesn't know about her mother and Patti! Maybe there is no feud, maybe there's all stuff in my mind and maybe in Diana's mind ...

"So Diana asked me a real personal question ... a girlfriend question. So I said, well, give me your number and I'll call you back with the information. I called her back, we started talking. I swear to God, we've been talking for the last--since Oprah's weekend. We've been girlfriends."

"I wanna tell you guys that, if you have any doubts about her, let 'em go. Because I think she's a good person."